Ok, Chapter 18! I'm so excited that the story is growing so much! Thank ya'll for the continual reviews, follows, and favorites! I hope ya'll are enjoying reading this and much as I am writing it! Also, I added something to chapter 15, so it should help with this chapter. Alright, enjoy! DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games.
Marvel wakes us all up when it gets dark. We all get dressed and arm ourselves with weapons. Ellie volunteers to stay and watch the camp, so the rest of us eat a small bit of food before heading out to give us some extra energy.
When we've all eaten something, we head out to hunt down our next victim. We hunt into the wee hours of the morning, all without seeing, hearing or smelling a thing.
We are about to go back to the camp when we hear a high pitched whistle and begin to heat crackling. I look over to my left and see a huge wall of fire heading right towards us. "Guys, move!" I yell as they look over and see what I did.
We waste no time taking off, running as fast as we can in the opposite direction of the fire. I feel my heart racing from the adrenaline and sudden exercise.
I glance over and see that Cato and Marvel are having no trouble keeping ahead of the fire, but Peeta and Glimmer aren't doing so well.
Peeta's having trouble due to his injuries, but Glimmer seems to just be out of running shape. She begins to slow her pace quite quickly. "Glimmer! You have to keep running!" Marvel yells back to her, noticing her drop in speed.
His yelling doesn't seem to help her at all, and she soon is only a hundred yards ahead of the wall of flames. Marvel looks back and sees, he then does something I didn't expect at all. He turns around, and then runs directly towards Glimmer and the fire.
When he reaches her, he picks her up and quickly throws her over his shoulder and begins running effortlessly back to Cato and I. Peeta sees this and begins to run faster, despite his injuries, and he is soon back with us leaving me to wonder if he really was behind because he couldn't run faster.
We continue running full force for a few minutes, and we begin to think that we're in the clear. Suddenly, we hear a sharp pop followed by a whiz as a fire ball flies right past us, barely missing Peeta. "Crap" I hear Cato mutter as we take off again.
Glimmer is running on her own again now, and she is able to keep up just fine. I however, am having trouble. I was never much of a long distance runner. All I ever did in training was short sprints to chase victims.
I soon begin to fall behind, put continue to push through as much as I can. I think I'm doing ok; when I suddenly am lurched forward landing on the ground, face first and all that I feel is searing pain as I lie there. My back feels like it's been hit with a blow torch.
I am over whelmed by the smell of burning flesh and quickly realize that I've been hit by a fire ball. I'm still unable to move, and the fact that I'm lying on the ground become the least of my worries and the flames get closer, and closer.
Luckily, Cato notices that I'm not by them anymore and glances back to see me. He quickly darts towards me, picks me up, and gently drapes my body over both of his shoulders. Then he sprints, seeing the lake in sight.
The others have already jumped in and are soothing their own burns, and we follow quickly. The moment that the cool water hits my burnt skin, I let out a yelp.
It's then that Cato notices why I fell. "Crap, Clove." he speaks suddenly "I thought you just tripped and knocked the wind out of your lungs" he finishes as he begins to examine my back.
The back of my t-shirt is almost non-existent from where the fire burnt through it. My skin is bright red and there's some blood beginning to flow from it. Some areas are already beginning to scab up though, so that's a good thing.
"We've got to get that patched up." Peeta says. "I agree. Glimmer, could you look around the supplies and see if we have any burn cream and bandages left?" Cato asks as he picks me up out of the water and walks over to the cornucopia.
Peeta takes his sleeping bag out of his tent and lays it flat, as Cato places me gently, face down on it. "Sorry Clove, but we have to get the shirt off." Peeta says gently. "It's fine. Go ahead." I say as Cato sits me up and begins to gently work the shirt off over my waist and slowly pulls it off over my head.
I grimace a little as the shirt sticks to some raw flesh and rips a little. "Sorry" Cato whispers softly. I'm not mad at him, he's trying so hard to be gentle and that's all I ask for.
When my shirt is off, I lie back down, resting my chin onto my crossed arms. Peeta takes his shirt, dips it into some sterile drinking water and begins to gently dab the blood off of my back. I grit my teeth throughout the long process as Cato gives me his hand to squeeze.
I'm sure he's lost all the feeling in it by now. I'm surprised that Cato doesn't lash out against Peeta for hurting me, although it's not like he's doing it on purpose.
He's doing his very best to help. He did spend a lot of time at the first aid station during training, so now at least we have a healer. He's beginning to actually be more of a help than a nuisance, And he does owe me for helping him before.
Peeta finally gets my back cleaned up enough just in time as Glimmer comes back with cream and some bandages.
He takes them from her and places them on the sleeping bag to stay clean. "Ok, I'm sorry Clove, but this part will hurt." Peeta says gently with a small bit of concern in his voice.
I nod and Cato starts stroking my hair out of my face and gently combing through it with his fingers. I can't help the yelp of pain that escapes through my lips as the cream makes contact with my flesh. "It's ok, shhh, its ok." Cato soothes as I whimper quietly.
I hate that I'm showing this display of weakness, but I just can't help it. Burns seem to be the worst flesh wound possible to me right now.
"Ok, done. Now I'll just put the bandages on." Peeta says and I let out a sigh of relief. He helps me sit up and wraps the bandages around my waist covering my whole lower back and torso, and then he take smaller ones and puts them on my upper back and shoulders.
He finishes after a good half hour and then the other begin cleaning and bandaging their own wounds. I didn't notice before, but Cato has a pretty nasty gash on his shoulder. "How'd you get that?" I ask him.
"When I went back for you, a tree branch burnt off and fell on me." He responds nonchalantly. "Thank you… so much." I tell him when I am able to make eye contact. "No problem." He says back with a small smirk.
"You feeling up to hunt a little more?" he asks after a few moments. "Yeah, I think so. The pain's subsiding a little and I should be ok."
I answer him. "Great, we'll head back out in a few hours." He tells me and the others. We rest for a little while, then gather our weapons and head out again for the second time today. We walk for an hour, seeing nothing. But then, we spot the last person we expected. Fire- Girl.
It's Marvel who spots her first. "Guys, look! It's her!" he yells with excitement. All of us but Peeta cheers as we take off on a jog to catch her. However, she sees us coming and quickly scrambles up out of the water and onto the bank.
We go around the water and follow closely behind her. She's pretty fast though, but I notice that's she's limping quite a bit. Just when we're about to reach her, she begins climbing up a tree.
By the time we get to the base of the trunk, she's already a quarter of the way up. She glances down to see if we'll follow and Cato takes the opportunity to taunt her.
"How's the weather up there?" he yells up. "It's not too bad actually. You should come up and see for yourself." She responds back with as much sarcasm as he did. "I think I will actually." He yells again and begins to climb the tree with his shining sword strapped around his waist.
We cheer him on from the ground as he climbs higher and higher. "Kill her Cato! Kill her!" I cheer, however, just when he's about to get close enough to her, she begins to climb higher. He tries to go further, but he's just too heavy for the thinning tree branches to hold.
We hear a crack and Cato tumbles down and lands on one of the thicker branches with a loud thud. He groans from the pain and climbs back down to the ground. "Glimmer, you try." He tells the blonde as he begins to massage his left shoulder.
She takes her bow and loads an arrow. She takes aim and releases it, sending it flying into the tree trunk next to Katniss. "Let me try" I growl as I grab the bow from her hand. I shoot an arrow and it sticks into the branch right below her feet. "Dang it." I grumble
Marvel is about to throw his spear when Peeta speaks up. "Why don't we just wait her out?" He asks. "What?" Cato tests him. "I mean, she's got to come down sometime, right?" he adds, looking up. Cato thinks for a moment, and then he responds. "Alright, someone make a fire. You better be right about this." He says to Peeta while pointing towards his chest.
Ellie gathers the fire wood and before long, we're all sitting around the glowing flames. We sit and wait, listening to cheesy jokes from Marvel and being forced to listen to Glimmer talk about her life in District 1. Finally, one by one, we begin to settle down for bed.
Cato and I both know that we can't sleep next to each other because it could raise suspicions from the capitol and hurt our possibilities of winning. So, I lie down next to the fire and Cato sits up against the tree trunk and he begins to sleep.
The last thing I see before closing my eyes is Peeta lying on his back, looking directly up to the spot where Katniss is. "He better not try anything." I mumble to myself before drifting off to sleep.
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